Drill and blast tunnelling on Sweden’s US$800M Stockholm Southern Link finally came to a close last month, with the completion of contract SL04 at the eastern end of the ring road by Vägverket Produktion (the construction arm of client, the Swedish National Road Administration), and SL10 by Skanska in the west.
The three other main tunnelling contracts, which make up the lion’s share of the underground construction of the southern stretch, finished earlier in the year; NCC/NCC-EEG Henriksen completed SL01 and SL02 in July, while Skanska (previously Selmer ASA) wrapped up SL03. (T&TI, October 99 p54, May 2000 p20)
This section of urban motorway, which began in early 1998, forms part of the ring road around Stockholm and although only 5.5km long, has a combined length of tunnels and ramps of 16.6km. The tunnels are twin tubes with cross-sections that vary from 10m2-140m2, having an average of 75m2.
The overall project is running about a year behind schedule, pushing back the opening date to late 2004.
“The problem was with logistics,” said Birger Höök, project manager.
“Geology is not a problem – it is good hard and solid, we know it well,” said Höök. “The problem was finding a place to put the road; there are tunnels all over the place down there.”
The focus is now on completing the extensive cut and cover works for the access ramps down to the tunnels. The last to finish will be the ‘big dig’ on SL23 being constructed by Skanska, which won’t be completed until 2004.
SL20, SL21 and SL25 being constructed by Vägverket Produktion and SL24, also constructed by Skanska, will be completed later this year or early next year. Selmer ASA’s SL11 contract and AFS Frijo’s SL22 contract were both completed in the summer.
Installation work, including ventilation, crash barriers, electrical, pumps and security, is now underway.
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Stockholm’s Southern Link
